'Chaos to Clarity' with Tiana Epps-Johnson

"We spend the same amount on maintaining our parking facilities as we do on running elections." Elections are "the load-bearing beam of democracy and the civil rights issue of our time." Tiana Epps-Johnson, CEO of the Center for Tech and Civic Life, uses technology to prevent that beam from cracking under coordinated attacks targeting 8,000 election offices that represent the scaffolding of our democracy. ‍Action Opportunities Support CTCL's work: Donate to the Center for Tech and Civic Life at techandciviclife.org to help protect election infrastructure and support officials under threat. Volunteer as a poll worker: The single thing that most increases confidence in elections is a positive interaction with your local poll worker. Be that person. Get a front-row seat to democracy in action. Share accurate information: Combat chaos by helping people in your networks understand how elections actually work‍. Subscribe to CTCL's newsletter: Stay current with election administration stories, trainings, best practices, and updates from the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence at techandciviclife.org/our-work/election-officials/electricity Connect with Tiana: Follow her work on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/tianaej  Key Takeaways ‍1. Elections are the scaffolding holding democracy together. The 8,000 election offices nationwide operate as an interconnected web, the load-bearing beam of how we make decisions as a country. But this infrastructure runs on massive resource gaps - from $2 per voter in some jurisdictions to $60 in others - and officials increasingly under attack for doing their jobs. When the foundation cracks, everything falls. 2. Chaos itself is the weapon. Tiana draws a parallel to tactics used in the tobacco industry: when you can't win on facts, you make things so confusing that people give up and look away. Make the system overwhelming enough that people disengage entirely. The pattern is clear: 2016 cyber attacks, 2018 disinformation, 2020 pandemic exploitation, 2022 vitriol driving officials out, 2024-2025 foreign interference. Each wave designed to overwhelm, confuse, and break trust in the systems holding us together. 3. Translation work is the antidote. Tiana takes overwhelming election systems and helps people understand and engage with them - the same work this podcast tries to do with activism. CTCL publishes civic information accessed over 200 million times. Making the invisible visible, the complex actionable. Meeting people where they are with what they actually need. 4. Building networks vs. building walls. In 2022, Tiana launched the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, an $80 million, five-year program bringing together election officials, technologists, and designers across all 50 states. Officials from red counties and blue counties work together because they share something more fundamental than politics: commitment to protecting democracy's infrastructure through peer support rather than top-down mandates. 5. Defending democracy comes at a personal cost. In 2020, CTCL distributed $350 million to help local election offices run safe elections during COVID. The attacks that followed were unprecedented. Staying focused on mission when protecting democracy makes you a target requires resilience most of us don't have. Tiana and thousands of election officials do this work every day, often without recognition, frequently under threat.